Microsoft Refuses to Fix Broken Xbox Live Account

Online gaming's descent into a bureacratic social networking hell continues apace, aided by the scripted and unhelpful staff that man Microsoft's telephones. From Qt3 poster RickH:

I set up an Xbox Live Silver account for one of my sons in April 2007, using a Windows Live ID linked to one of my email addresses. This Christmas, he asked for and got an Xbox Live 12-month card so he could play online. ... However, when I try to enter the code, it says it can't connect to Xbox Live. (Which is BS, because I can do it with the other profiles in the system.) After a half hour on the phone with MS's highly scripted but ultimately useless 1-800-4MYXBOX folks, they told me that the Windows Live ID "hadn't been used in so long that it expired." As a result, my son's Xbox Live Gamertag, which logs into Xbox Live just fine to record his achievements, is permanently unable to be turned into a Gold account.

But thing is that they tied the account to his windows ID and when that expired they took the live account too. Not sure what MS has to say, but maybe they should'v somehow given him notification about the account expiring or somethin

sorry but when i said sony i was refery to how they have done stuff like this as well. but you want to be the annoying fanboy. and i picked my name because of that. its fun watching people like you act like retards over it XD. -nai-

NaiNai is right. One person has a complaint and it's "typical" MS. Typical would mean there are more problem users than there are happy ones. I am a happy user, never had a problem and that cancels this guy out.

No surprised you are the contributer as well as this submission and your comment are garbage.

all those hours you spent getting those throphies in the home beta and there gone. same for the ingame voice chat. you say you dont pay for it. yet A. you bought the system, B. you bought the games. C. you bought accesories, which all those things cost less to make then what they sell them for, sony could easily add features. you just to blind to admit it.

not to mention that they just shutdown servers without warning. i may pay for my service but atleast i get what i pay for. you get nothing cause you pay for nothing.

same for cheaters, you get them more then us. why you cant ban them theres no system like that, ban someone they make another account. XD you say sony doesnt screw you over, yet they do it in every way possible. you can also be locked out your your PSN accounts just as easily, one wrong move and its done, its just like PSU they had a server error and wiped out alot of users accounts, so they had to restore the server, alot of people lost some massive lvls. and yet they pay for it. you seem to forget, it happens everywhere. -nai-

So sad. I completely sympathize with that person. Imagine losing all your friends lists, gold points, etc and then having all you people just up and state, oh just make a new account it's that simple.

For some, actually a lot of people, having those features are half of why people enjoy live. If you people say that then you should never be able to complain about losing a save, if so you'd be considered a hypocrite. Think of losing your stats for all your games, the save files for all your games, and everything else you assumed you had. Would you not be angry?

Typical fan boys always willing to bend over for the company they love with absolutely no compassion to the issue at hand. Seriously I hope this happens to you guys who said that to see how aggravating it would be. Childish attitudes and arguments are all you provide and it helps no one.

People should complain, and have others agree with it, and maybe it'll get fixed. But if consumers just take it with a grain of salt because "that's the way it is", nothing will ever get fixed. I have live and sorry, but while it's ahead of the competition, it is in no way perfect and we as a community should be the ones letting MS know the issues in order to resolve them.

"Typical fan boys always willing to bend over for the company they love with absolutely no compassion to the issue at hand. Seriously I hope this happens to you guys who said that to see how aggravating it would be. Childish attitudes and arguments are all you provide and it helps no one.

People should complain, and have others agree with it, and maybe it'll get fixed. But if consumers just take it with a grain of salt because "that's the way it is", nothing will ever get fixed."

Excellent point/post Taz X14 of which some don't/won't see the true importance of ~ Agree + Bubbles.

I know I will get labeled a "fanboy" for this but that is EXACTLY how I feel about the 360 and the RROD issue...certain people can say whatever they want in an attempt to downplay it, but the truth is the truth, no matter what kind of spin it has.

Mind you this has absolutely nothing to do with MS's games or LIVE! As one thing is different from the other...I have ONLY taken issue with the poor hardware that is within the 360 and how customers get F'ed over because of it (and no a used beat up refurbished replacement doesn't make it "all better"). All while M$ gets away with undoubtedly the worst publicly known but "blind eye" hardware scandal ever.

1+ Billion dollars so far is not enough for what they tried to get away with...which is truly a shame. As if they would have implemented HD-DVD, HDMI, a HDD, free multiplayer & better QC they would have had this gen (plus the "format war") on lock down for sure. Because they had the game titles and the online experience that would have solidified their standings early on.

Without taking a dig a Microsoft in specific you would think these "geniuses" at MS, Sony & Nintendo would have thought about simple things such as the above one.

Despite the good points for all the consoles there still exists a lot of stupid little botch ups that seems to leave these companies with egg on their face and their refusal to address them just adds to it.

Why tie an xbox live account to an windows ID if you weren't planning on keeping the account active. I don't feel sorry for this guy. Plus, this crying like B!tches to the internet whenever things don't go your way is really starting to become a way of life for gamers. And that really sucks, because some people (including me) are really tired of hearing it.

Okay, you lost your account, your W-ID expired, get over it, get a new account. It's not like whining to a bunch a rabid fanboys is going to change anything. The only people you're going to get any support form are going to be psyco Microsoft haters anyway. Shut up already.

i've had a similar incident except it was with windows live. I could log in to windows live messenger but when i tried to check the mail on live it said it no longer exists. I only used live messenger to talk to Japanese folks. since yahoo requires you to have a Japanese yahoo account to talk to Japanese folks.

the account still functions, but he cant upgrade to a pay account because his email is dead

all he has to do is make a new email address and his problem is solved, i know of at least 2 people who ahd their live accounts email changed to a new address when they had issues so really all he has to do is make a new email and call support

basically this guy is b!tching because his free account has to stay free

but any logical person would have it fixed in half a hour

i personally know 2 people who had their ids changed over the phone...he just didn't try and if he did he acted like a jerk off and they didn't like it

Guess what? This guy's Gamertag and account aren't lost. It is his windows passport/email that has expired or whatever from it not being used. The idiot just needs to make another Windows passport and add it to the old gamertag when it is recovered. After he does that all his achievements, everything is now active, open and ready to go.

This might be the dumbest article or whatever you wanna call it I have seen on this site. And that is saying something when we are talking about n4g.com

True story here. I created my WLID when 360 was launched November 05. I have not even used that account since, except for activation. As a matter of fact, I forgot the password and the answer’s to my securtiy questions. So that account is way past dead, I am still able to log into my Xbox live account and collect achievements. Don’t beleive look at my GT, GS. ThatLaLaLa. Unless your kid has over 10,000, tell him to make a new account.